innovate.
with care.

Hey there! I am Bilgi.

Design Leader, empowering teams
to solve meaningful problems –
through beautiful experiences.

Intro

I love design, I love people and I love the planet we live on. Dedicated to creating meaningful experiences that bridge people, society and planet while designing delightful moments. Cautiously optimistic that technology will eventually blend into our lives seamlessly..

Experience

My passion and joy is assembling and leading stellar teams that deliver meaningful value for people, planet and business.

IKEA.com

IKEA

I recently joined the amazing team that is orchestrating the framework behind all IKEA customer facing solutions: IKEA Design System SKAPA, Concept Website, Global IKEA website, Knowledge Graph, SEO are all under this framework. Stay tuned for updates.

IKEA Home smart

IKEA

Established the first customer-facing UX Team at IKEA of Sweden with the mission of bringing the smart home to the many people. Responsible for all physical and digital experiences for Home Smart IoT products. Collaborating with companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Sonos and Spotify. Leading an amazing team of internal and external UX people. Shifting culture and processes through UX Strategy and Principles.

Car Thing

Spotify

UX Lead for the public beta of Spotify Car Thing. Overall UX approach in order to convert the research into a well-rounded execution that maximized learning opportunities for this mountain bet. Analysis of the platform context to bring clarity and focus into the UX.

Get A Room

Evoko

UX Lead for the Get A Room app as an oasis in the corporate desert which also continued into several projects including Pusco and room finder. Lead the efforts for research and design through a small but effective team in record time-to-market. Kickstarted a major shift in approach to UX at Evoko.

UX Vision & Strategy

Boeing

Creative Lead & Project Manager for a fluid team of designers, coders, researchers, and prototypers working with future vision of the end user experience through prototyping and meaningful innovation. Spearheaded the first user-experience focused design process and applied meaningful innovative solutions to real-life problems using experience prototypes and user tests. Nexus project impacted Boeing on a strategically on C-level - for example - in a decision for the company to develop their own airplane seats.

Design, Strategy & Vision

Sony

Innovation and creative direction for strategic projects including early concepting and exploration for Smart Watch, Walkman, Android, PlayStation... Lead Industrial Designer of phones & accessories with Hands-on design + team lead. Cross-disciplinary innovation work together with Human-Interface Designers and Interaction Designers. Walkman Design Strategy Lead Creative lead for the Walkman Design Strategy (aka Mr. Walkman) for 2007-2009. Leading a team of 8-10 designers end-to-end breaking some business records along the way.

Virtual Running Coach

SHFT

Virtual Running Coach with voice guidance and advanced metrics for Danish startup SHFT. UX Strategy Lead as well as a close collaboration with C-Suite for early investor meetings to raise funds. Very iterative process close to developers and business.

UX Strategy

Aether

UX Strategy and portfolio roadmap for Aether Things during my time at Above (HOWL&Frankly). One of the most ambitious early AI Music startups in Silicon Valley funded by Skype co-founder Janus Friis. Covered by Wired, The Verge, New York Times, and more.

© 2022 Bilgi Karan